Vietnam Bans Hamsters as Pets
If you are the proud owner of a little hamster and you live in Vietnam, it is not your week.
Due to it being lunar Year of the Rat, there has been a huge increase in hamster ownership amongst Vietnamese residents. Real life hamster clubs and online hamster forums have sprung up everywhere and with the coming International Women’s Day, the Vietnamese government has decided to crack down on the hamster trend.
As of today, 10 March 2008, anyone caught possessing or trading a pet hamster will be fined up to $1,875 dollars.
So what will they do with all the hamsters? Well, there has been no mention of a plan for what to do with all the hamsters. People are likely to release their pet instead of killing them or risking the hefty fine, but that would just add to the concerns the government has for mass reproduction and spreading of disease.
“Destroying them all is really a big problem,” agriculture ministry official Nguyen Thanh Son was quoted as saying. “I think the Vietnam animal health department should take some samples, conduct tests and see how dangerous the hamsters in Vietnam really are.”
By Aki Nakimura on 10-03-2008
Comment by Vincent
March 10th, 2008 at 11:29 pm
A new low for the Vietnam Communist government?
Comment by TimesEye
March 11th, 2008 at 1:05 am
they are cute, b ut good desition
Comment by JohnP
March 11th, 2008 at 6:11 am
Can I has right for life?
Comment by Biggly
March 11th, 2008 at 9:10 am
I’m not sure who’s cuter, the girl or the hamster.
Shouldn’t it be rats though? What do they do in the year of the dragon, eh, eh? They can’t ALL have Hillary Clinton as a pet…
Comment by yongke
March 11th, 2008 at 11:24 am
Oh yea, blame the communist government when things go wrong, but when things go right, no one mention anything with an innitial “c”.
Comment by Allen
March 11th, 2008 at 2:01 pm
YOU BASTARDS!!!
(>.<)
Comment by Teddy
March 12th, 2008 at 5:16 am
“A new low for the Vietnam Communist government?”
What-what-WTF? Would love to see you answer your own question Vincent. I have a feeling it could make my day.
Comment by claire
March 13th, 2008 at 6:04 pm
OMFG i own 8 hamsters and i feel so sad for those abandoned hamsters I WOULD ADOPT ALL OF THEM ( yes i basicaly have a hous like a zoo 2 rabbits 8 hamsters and gazzillion tanks of fish )
Comment by darkwing duck
March 13th, 2008 at 8:55 pm
You can’t have Hillary as a pet she bites.
the only hamster that suck is Hämsterviel
no more hamtaro
Comment by haha
March 19th, 2008 at 5:10 pm
i would never adopt one.
Comment by Josh
April 4th, 2008 at 3:52 pm
haha IS AN IDIOT! HAMSTERS ARE THE BEST PETS NEXT TO DOGS AND CHINCILLAS!
Comment by kc
April 14th, 2008 at 10:30 am
uhm.. in my country, hamster was banned by the government but everyone still has it as a pet at home.. no harm done so far. the whole thing abt banning hamster is just a government’s good intention of trying to protect the ppl and the hamster from diseases that an un-registered hamster could bring.
dont just anyhow say bad thing abt the communist..
every government has its own flaws.
and human is not meant to feel satisfied easily.
this part abt human is annoying, always complain abt others and never do anything to make it right.
Comment by Boo
May 7th, 2008 at 10:31 pm
holy fuck!! why in hte hell would u wanna get rid of the hamsters??? they are so cute. i don’t own any right now bcuz my sister is allergic to animal fur so if she wasn’t i would have like 7 hamsters in my house.
Comment by luckylife333
June 13th, 2008 at 3:08 pm
OMG Yeah they have to BAN them why just not limit the number of hamsters per household to i dunno,10? I know the west govnerment does weird stuff too but THIS,THIS is just silly
Comment by BigKahuna
September 11th, 2008 at 10:28 pm
Well, Thank GOD someone has taken a stand against the creeping hamster menace! Now for those insidious chipmunks………….Alvin, your time has COME! HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA!
Comment by MB
November 17th, 2008 at 2:08 am
It has nothing to do with communism. Every country has its own law, if you think yours is wonderfully free then what’s the excuse for banning gay marriage.
Anyway, the article failed to mention that all the supplies of hamster are unregistered, the hamsters did not go through any medical checkups or vaccination and after the trend of buying hamster is the “trend” of hamster dying. Yes almost ALL of the hamster could not survive any close to few months. There hasn’t been a lot of medical tests of any sort.
The problem of the government is that it is impossible to control the black market, since certified supply with medical checkups are relatively to costly for consumers’ budget. Since they cannot control it, they ban it and I thought it was pretty wise of them. Better off making a few teenage girls pout now than waiting for the disease to spread and kill millions of people
Comment by ThailandSocial
December 21st, 2008 at 2:08 pm
I hear Hamster lovers worldwide will be launching a protest! Okay not really, but it could happen!